When I was first discovering black metal around the year 2004 and began diving deeper into the genre outside of gateway bands like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, one of the first bands I discovered that really made an impression on me was Immortal, particularly their 2000 release, “Damned in Black”. All it took was one look at the album cover’s portrayal of the band, bathed in red and black shadows and clad in shining leather and their fiendishly grimacing corpsepainted faces to paint my expectations of what an evil sounding album truly was.
And I was not wrong.
In spite of some of the band’s sillier antics on and off the stage (watch the music video for Call of the Wintermoon and see what I mean, if you aren’t already familiar), the album was a scathing inferno of ferocious riffs that sounded like frozen chainsaws cranking up in the middle of a blizzard, and then-vocalist/guitarist Abbath’s inhuman frostbitten vocals sounded like they had been conjured from the deepest abyss of Hell in an earth-shattering collision of fire and ice that would forever captivate my heart and imagination. The sheer breakneck fury of Damned in Black was – and remains – inimitable, with songs that shift in tone and composition unpredictably like an ever flowing volcanic eruption, transitioning from soul-thrashing chaos to powerful rhythms and memorable hooks. Just when you think Damned in Black is slowing down, it undergoes a dynamic shift in tempo and changes gears completely. It’s a hell of a ride, and an endlessly enjoyable one at that. While Immortal were not involved in the more controversial events of the Scandinavian black metal scene, the music spoke volumes of ashen demons lurking between dimensions in grim, icy towers and frostbitten lands. Damned in Black is imaginative, fun, and pants-shittingly fast, and each year, when the cooler months return, I never fail to crank that fucker up and smile like I’m young again.
Listen below:
Towers of Rust 